Canada under British Rule 1760-1900 eBook

of the English tongue surpasses all his versatile
compatriots—­of Sir Charles Tupper, Mr.
Foster and others who might be mentioned, recall the
most brilliant period of parliamentary annals (1867—­1873),
when in the first parliament of the Dominion the most
prominent men of the provinces were brought into public
life, under the new conditions of federal union.
The debating power of the provincial legislative bodies
is excellent, and the chief defects are the great
length and discursiveness of the speeches on local
as well as on national questions. It is also admitted
that of late years there has been a tendency to impair
the dignity and to lower the tone of discussion.

Many Canadians have devoted themselves to art since
1867, and some Englishmen will recognise the names
of L.R. O’Brien, Robert Harris, J.W.L.
Forster, Homer Watson, George Reid—­the painter
of “The Foreclosure of the Mortgage,”
which won great praise at the World’s Fair of
Chicago—­John Hammond, F.A. Verner,
Miss Bell, Miss Muntz, W. Brymner, all of whom are
Canadians by birth and inspiration. The establishment
of a Canadian Academy of Art by the Princess Louise,
and of other art associations, has done a good deal
to stimulate a taste for art, though the public encouragement
of native artists is still very inadequate, when we
consider the excellence already attained under great
difficulties in a relatively new country, where the
great mass of people has yet to be educated to a perception
of the advantages of high artistic effort.

Sculpture would be hardly known in Canada were it
not for the work of the French Canadian Hebert, who
is a product of the schools of Paris, and has given
to the Dominion several admirable statues and monuments
of its public men. While Canadian architecture
has hitherto been generally wanting in originality
of conception, the principal edifices of the provinces
afford many good illustrations of effective adaptation
of the best art of Europe. Among these may be
mentioned the following:—­the parliament
and departmental buildings at Ottawa, admirable examples
of Italian Gothic; the legislative buildings at Toronto,
in the Romanesque style; the English cathedrals in
Montreal and Fredericton, correct specimens of early
English Gothic; the French parish church of Notre-Dame,
in Montreal, attractive for its stately Gothic proportions;
the university of Toronto, an admirable conception
of Norman architecture; the Canadian Pacific railway
station at Montreal and the Frontenac Hotel at Quebec,
fine examples of the adaptation of old Norman architecture
to modern necessities; the provincial buildings at
Victoria, in British Columbia, the general design of
which is Renaissance, rendered most effective by pearl-grey
stone and several domes; the headquarters of the bank
of Montreal, a fine example of the Corinthian order,
and notable for the artistic effort to illustrate,
on the walls of the interior, memorable scenes in
Canadian history; the county and civic buildings of